英语 major, biologist, Ultimate Frisbee enthusiast

Liza Schnauck, 25岁, called “Duck” by friends, is a sophomore at Skidmore from Marshfield, Massachusetts, majoring in 英语. Liza is super passionate about the 英语 major and was asked to act as an 英语系 学生 representative. Student representatives like Liza attend department meetings, meet candidates for new positions, and provide input.

Liza is really excited to spend more time with faculty and have an influence on hiring decisions, saying, “I think it’s pretty cool that Skidmore lets their 学生s be involved in things like that.”

英语 and creative writing remain very important to Liza, but Liza also discovered a passion for 生物学 while at Skidmore. Biology hadn’t been taught extensively in high school, and Liza was curious about the new subject. 

After taking Organismal Biology, Liza fell “totally in love with it” and the field 的进化 生物学. While Liza hopes to pursue 英语 in graduate school and become a creative writing professor someday, the 英语 major also wants to be able to do research on invasive species on the side. Liza is particularly interested in the invasive lionfish found in the northern Bahamas, where Liza lived for a period as a child. 莉莎说 lionfish have a big impact on the economy of the Bahamas and the accessibility of food to the Bahamian people.

While balancing two distinct academic disciplines, Liza keeps extra busy with the other opportunities Skidmore has to offer. Liza's first first semester as a Skidmore 学生 took place in London as part of Skidmore’s First-Year Experience 程序. Despite all the challenges COVID posed, Liza says Skidmore really made it easy to get to know each other. Liza gushed about how much everyone enjoyed London.

Once on campus for the second semester, Liza joined the Ultimate Frisbee team thanks to the encouragement of a roommate.

“I just felt like it was a community that really wanted me there, and it felt like such a cool and accepting space, especially for queer people.”

The team is co-ed, and players are very aware that playing with someone assigned male at birth can feel daunting to someone assigned female at birth, so the group ensures that everyone’s pronouns are respected and is “really friendly and welcoming.”

What’s Liza’s favorite part about being at Skidmore?

“Honestly, how much Skidmore feels like home to me. Genuinely, it just makes me so happy to be here and to be around people who are as excited about academics and 学生 像我一样的活动.”

If you catch Liza around campus, ask about how the recent audition for the 爵士乐团 去了. Liza received classical training on the violin and is now hoping to learn the new musical style and is eagerly waiting to hear back about the audition.